Yoga Stories and Essays
by Charles MacInerney
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The 92-year-old woman, after many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of her new nursing home, smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she waited for the elevator, a nurse's aide began to describe her room to her. "I love it," the 92-year-old interrupted enthusiastically. "But you haven't seen the room yet!" said the nurse's aid. "That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged -- it's how I arrange my mind. I have already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. " Anecdote posted on website by the nurse's aide. |
| This nursing home resident obviously understood and took to heart Will Rogers' observation years ago, that "people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." A Buddhist teaching story illustrates it this way: |
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Why is it so hard for us to use our power to create our own reality in a conscious, constructive way? A Sioux Indian Creation Myth explains it this way: |
 The
Creator gathered all of Creation and said, "I want to hide something
from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization
that they create their own reality." The eagle said, "Give
it to me, I will take it to the moon." The Creator said, "No.
One day they will go there and find it." The salmon said, "I
will bury it on the bottom of the ocean." "No. They will
go there too." The buffalo said, "I will bury it on the
Great Plains." The Creator said, "They will cut into the
skin of the Earth and find it even there." |
 Grandmother
Mole, who lives in the breast of Mother Earth, and who has no physical
eyes but sees with spiritual eyes, said, "Put it inside of them."
And the Creator said, "It is done." |
Creation
Myth 
A
traveler approached a monk, sitting beside the road. "I am
moving to Damascus. Is it a nice place to live?" The monk asked
in return, "Was the last city you lived in pleasant? Did you
have many friends?" The traveler replied, "Oh no, it was
a filthy place, and the residents were thieves!" The monk looked
him over and answered "You will find that Damascus is no better."
A
few hours later a second traveler posed the same question to the
Monk. The Monk again asked "How was the last city you lived
in? Were the citizens unpleasant?" "Oh no!" responded
the traveler. "The city was beautiful and the people very friendly!"
The monk looked him over and said, "You will find that Damascus
is a very nice place to live and the residents are most friendly."
